At The End of The Day
by galliumite
Summary: This is a scene I wrote for a competition. It features Harry and Ginny after the birthday party of their two year old son. I may make this into a story later.


**A/N: This is a scene that I wrote for the Quidditch World Cup writing competition. If you would like to see a story grow from this, or around this, please comment as such, otherwise, I'll leave it as a One-Shot. I used 3 optional prompts,** **(dialogue) "Your silence scares me.",** **(setting) thunderstorm and** **(word) divorce.**

Harry Potter stood in the kitchen of a cottage, cleaning dishes. Outside, a storm was grumbling. The cottage had white walls, with exposed, black wooden rafters. There was a fire crackling in the sitting room, providing most of the light in the adjoining kitchen and dining room. It was as Harry was cleaning one of the many knives, that Ginevra Weasley walked into the room, as a roll of thunder shook the building. Ginny looked at the scene and smiled. She knew that Harry was fretting over how the day had gone, and that was why he was cleaning the dishes by hand, rather than magic, it was one of those things that had become oddly therapeutic for him. Ginny believed it was because it grounded him.

Harry hadn't noticed her enter, the thunder being too much of a distraction. So she crept up behind him, and began rubbing his shoulders. Harry sighed in response. "You did well today, Chief." Ginny said with an unseen grin. "I certainly hope that doesn't mean that you didn't expect as much?" The mirth that laced the question was at odds with the question itself. Harry may not have shown it, but Ginny knew he was reassured by the compliment, so she let the snark slide with a grin. "Husband dearest. I was blown away by the lengths you went to for your son's second birthday... The minister of magic? At a celebration he will never remember? I expected the moon and you brought it with an entourage of the stars." That made Harry laugh. "Anything for my family." At that Ginny put pressure on Harry's left side, asking him silently to turn and look at her. Harry turned at her silent request, and as he began to turn, a flash of lightning illuminated the scene. At that point, the rain, that had been falling at a steady rate started falling quite a bit faster. The charms that were on the house to prevent the sound of the rain failed to keep out all of the sound, and a steady rhythm emerged. "This is why I cast the charms." Ginny said with a glint of playful mischief in her eye. "Shut up Ginny." Harry replied with a wavering in the voice that could only indicate suppressed laughter. "Now, before I divorce you, thanks to your abysmal charmsmanship, there is something else I need to talk to you about. Only I don't want to do it while standing over dirty dishes, lets go sit in the living room." The humour that coloured Ginny's threat to Harry, faded, indicating to Harry that something important was going on. What else would cause his wife to stop joking about ending their marriage?

Harry straightened up, and pulled out his wand, casting charms on the sink, to make it clean the dshes, and the dishes, to tell them to be cleaned. The dishes began washing themselves effectively and efficiently. "See, I can cast charms." Harry said with an exaggerated pout. "There you have it folks, the Chief of the Auror Office, pouting because of his charms aptitude." Ginny grinned, faced arranged to portray mock insult. "You know, if you keep verbally abusing me, I'm going to divorce you." Harry put particular stress on the "I'm". As Harry said it, thunder boomed, making Harry grin again. "See, even the cosmos agrees." Harry commented. Ginny laughed, a sweet sound, and began dragging Harry to the living room. "Come speaker for the cosmos, we need to speak, but first..." Ginny pointed her wand at the ceiling, and cast a sound suppression charm. A royal blue haze escaped the wand, and spread all across the ceiling of the cottage. Once the spell was complete, the haze faded to non-existence, leaving the steady sound of the rain, and a flash of lightning. "Say nothing husband." Ginny moaned, starting to pull Harry again to the living room. "Would never dream of commenting on your..." Harry cleared his throat "Charmsmanship." Ginny huffed in response.

Once Harry had been unnecessarily manhandled into their living room, Ginny made a show of using charms to light the various candles and lamps that were used to light the room. As the last lamp was lit, thunder then made itself known. Ginny glanced over at Harry. "Oi! Speaker or listener or whatever you call yourself of the cosmos, what did the cosmos just say about my charmsmanship? Obviously it was positive reinforcement, I did just light all those bloody candles on my own." Ginny asked with a smirk. "The cosmos has decreed that you have an... adequate mastery of charms!" Harry joked in a grand voice, knowing full well that his wife was renowned for her charms. "On to more pressing matters." Ginny said, growing serious. "Today was an incredible thing for you to do, and I know it meant a lot to you. I also know that you had to call a lot of favours to get such a grand party set up. I mean, Harry, you brought the bloody minister! At the end of the day, this all meant one thing for James, exciting colours and cake. But what about to everyone else? People are going to ask why the Chief of the Auror Office and the minister were at a two year old's birthday party, when the remnants of the Death Eaters are mustering again." Harry's gaze grew cold as lightning flashed. Nearly a minute passed, with no sound but a groan of thunder, and a blink of lightning. Ginny, no longer comfortable in the tangible silence, whispered "Your silence scares me." She knew that the idea of him even almost scaring her would jolt him into speech. "Okay then." Ginny was alarmed by how hollow his tone had become. He stood and walked away, a moment later, Ginny heard him climbing the stairs, presumably on his way to bed.

Ginny was left breathless, what had just happened? she was expecting a negative reaction from Harry, needing to calm him down from am explosion, and then explain herself to him. She had not expected Harry to implode in his emotions like he just had. Ginevra spent at least an hour contemplating her husbands actions, while staring into the fireplace, listening to the steady sound of the rain, and the occasional boom of thunder.


End file.
